Tomorrow, April 9: Neighbors To Protest Tax Subsidy For Real Estate Developers

The Flatbush Tenant Coalition is inviting neighbors to join its members tomorrow, April 9, as they protest 421-a, a 40-year-old tax exemption program that tenants’ rights groups and some local legislators have slammed as a subsidy that helps to line the pockets of large developers and pave the way for rapid gentrification.

The rally will take place at 10:30am at 626 Flatbush Avenue, between Fenimore and Hawthorne Streets, which is the site of the Hudson Companies’ massive 23-story, 254-unit development that has been vehemently contested by community members — and which has benefitted from the 421-a program.

In addition to the FTC, the rally will be sponsored by the Crown Heights Tenant Union and New York Communities for Change.

The event is taking place almost exactly two months before the 421-a program is set to expire — meaning state legislators have to vote on it in order to keep it going as is or amend it. Groups like the Flatbush Tenant Coalition are calling for lawmakers to end the program entirely, though other legislators, including such local representatives as state Sen. Kevin Parker, Assemblyman Jim Brennan and Assemblywoman Rodneyse Bichotte, have said they don’t believe 421-a will ever entirely go by the wayside, in part because of the real estate lobby’s power in Albany, and instead will be altered prior to the lawmakers’ vote.

The 421-a tax abatement was set up to incentivize development in the 1970s economic recession. As part of the program, developers are offered a tax abatement allowing them to pay real estate taxes on the assessed value of the land before construction for 10 to 25 years, depending on the project.

Critics have said 421-a has resulted in developers landing big tax breaks and not enough affordable housing being built. According to a new report from the Association for Neighborhood and Housing Development, the 421-a program in the fiscal year 2013 cost the city $1.1 billion in forgone tax revenue but resulted in only a little more than 13,000 affordable rental apartments.

Currently, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration is creating a plan for a revised 421-a program — which they’d then need to lobby for in Albany. So far, no details of the revised plan have been aired to the public, but the mayor’s team has said they serious changes are needed in order to ensure more affordable housing is created throughout the five boroughs.

“The administration has made clear we do not believe 421-a as it exists today has produced nearly enough affordable housing for its cost to the public,” a spokesman for the mayor recently told Crain’s.

For more information about tomorrow’s event, as well as to RSVP, you can call 718-635-2623 or email ftcoalition@gmail.com.